Plus, it’s awesome to see the recipients harvesting alongside others. That experience and interaction will benefit both recipients and volunteers.

My one complaint: how about spelling out the significance of the group’s name? Mostly how cool it is that they get to have an asterisk in their name.

Other than that, it’s an enriching few minutes. As we see, not only does gleaning trees provide fruit for those in need, but it’s also a blast.

While doing some final research on the apple industry, I came across this article on apples gone to ground. An oldie but goodie, er, sort of.

While we’re talking about apples…this may just interest me, but here’s the breakdown on apple grades and sizing. Is it just me or are apples at the store much larger these days? They’re way too big for my liking. I swear that 72s or 64s must be the average size now. (You can get in on the lingo via the link)

Finally, Napa Valley food rescue wants to hear from you (provided you live there and have extra fruit). Just don’t take any oranges without asking first.  

On the way in, we noticed a bunch of citrus on the ground under their trees. As you can see in the photo below, they were grapefruit. Nice, pink ones. When one of the growers, Arturo, was showing us around, someone in our group asked him about the grapefruit (I didn’t even have to ask–one of the perks of traveling with a bunch of chefs).

A pained look came across Arturo’s face. He explained how this year’s orange crop was abundant, and since Chileans largely prefer them to grapefruit, there was little market for grapefruit. Calling it a lost season, he said next season they’d be ready to sell them abroad.

In the meantime, there were all these beauties on the trees and on the ground. In hindsight, I should have asked to try my first tree-plucked grapefruit. Either that, or figured out how to say ‘tree gleaning’ in Spanish.

Thanks to Chris Gallega for sending this photo. You can see a few more from our day trip on Chris’ blog Thought for Food.

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Green Seal restaurant standards just received a nice boost in the form of national recognition (from ANSI). Not that I have a clue about design, but I’m still not wild about the Green Seal logo–it seems more blue than green and isn’t that a check, not a seal? Who’d argue with a green-colored seal (the animal)?

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Another tree gleaning article must mean that the heart of the harvest season has arrived. And if that means a glut of tomatoes for you, here are 30 ideas on how to use them.

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You’ll find some good composting basics in this piece–”The Garden State”–in the Jersey section of the NYT.

The hour really flew by and there were a few things I was hoping to get in but didn’t. For example, a caller mentioned how much free fruit was available for foraging, but going to waste because nobody was collecting it. Sounds to me like somebody in Connecticut needs to start a tree gleaning group.

As for the extra bakery items and lack of reliable pickup, that speaks to the abundance of available bread. It was telling when host John Dankosky asked why they don’t bake less, the caller said that nobody wanted to see empty displays. Anyway, I’ll sleep better after Dankosky volunteered, with a smidge of self-interest, to collect all excess bakery items.

Also, in response to my comment on how we needed more involvement from the Federal government, one caller mentioned the national organization Feeding America. That group does great work, but what I had in mind was a return to when the USDA had a national gleaning coordinator and prompted farmers to donate more of their unharvested crop. Simplifying the tax code to allow all farms, including unincorporated ones, to receive deductions for donating wouldn’t hurt, either.

There were multiple mentions of Food Not Bombs, and this group apparently is still having problems with the state Board of Health. I wrote about this controversy in May.

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Atta boy, Texas!

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From a review of Grandma’s Country Pies and Restaurant (which I plan to visit the next time I’m near Albany):

“Would you like a roll?” we were each asked. Why, were they extra? No, but they don’t want to see them wasted, a policy we highly approved of.

This is such an underrated tactic for reducing food waste. Especially considering that once the bread basket hits the table, what’s remaining must be dumped (by health code rules). Now…whether some restaurants fudge on that is another story.
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Corvallis, Oregon’s Jamming for the Hungry rescues fruit and makes jam for donation. While it’s obviously a great idea, I can’t help wondering whether Bob Marley plays on a constant loop in their office or whether the soundtrack includes Phish and Blues Traveler.

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Finally, I try to steer clear of all things celebrity, but I can’t resist linking to this chuckle inducing rant on celebs wasting food. Given the portion sizes at many restaurants, Jessica Biel’s strategy isn’t bad…provided you take the other half home.

They now have a humble goal:

We ask all of you to contribute your maps so they expand to cover the United States and then the world.

In addition to encouraging folks to map and harvest public fruit, they’re big on community-building. Part of that comes from their annual Public Fruit Jam, an event where participants bring public or home grown fruit and a jar, then leave with, you guessed it, jam.  

(Slight tangent–I couldn’t help but notice that the host of the Public Jam also holds an annual Freeze-B-Q, which puts liquid nitrogen to good use. You bring food and they blend it and freeze it into a popsicle. Would more folks eat their leftovers if they were in a lickable form? Yeah, probably not. )

Back to Fallen Fruit, the reason I’m writing about them now is that the trio have two art exhibits on in L.A. Based on the review, it sounds like the latter, Fresh ‘n Easy, is really worth checking out for you Angelinos. In addition to the photographs and Public Jam jars, the exhibit will include:

a “Public Fruit Exchange,” which implements a “barter don’t buy” ethic implicit in much of their work. On these shelves will be public fruit left by the artists which is free to be taken and in particular exchanged for other fruit that visitors to the exhibition can bring from their neighborhood.

Interesting.

How’d you come up with the idea for Veggie Trader?

A few years back we started noticing all the excess stuff growing in our neighborhood and going to waste. It was everywhere. While we think splattered plums on the sidewalk make for interesting abstract art, we do believe fruit has a higher calling.  We think much of the problem is folks don’t know what to do with their super productive orange tree. Or they plant too many beans, basil, or kale. We figured Veggie Trader would give people a forum to help put their backyards to maximum use.

What’s your vision for the site?

Next time you’re out for a walk, take a look around. There’s a wealth of food growing right in our own backyards. People love to garden. We plant fruit trees, grape vines and fuss over our summer tomatoes. But too often much of what we grow ends up wasted. At the height of the harvest season, there are only so many tomatoes or squash one family can consume.

The idea behind Veggie Trader is to bring people together to share in the bounty and put it all to good use. Gardeners can use the website to trade for variety, find charities to donate to, or even sell their excess to make a few extra dollars. Those simply looking for local food can quickly get in touch with neighbors who have it.

Who does the cool art and do lemons really lament their wrinkles?

Yes, they do! Lemons just want to be useful. They want to be enjoyed and squeezed in the prime of life… The art is entirely the handiwork of Tam, one of the creators of the site.

What was the first trade/sale?

It’s early yet and we don’t monitor trades, but we intend to make a place available on the site soon where people can share their experiences with us.  It will be interesting to see what people say, and we can’t wait to hear their stories.

What has been the most popular item?
This time of year, seeds and starts seems to be the most popular listings.

Any funny anecdotes, thus far?

More like a quote: “I wish I had this last year so I didn’t have a yard full of raccoons getting drunk off my fermenting plums.”

In your mind, is there a critical mass for how many users you need?

We’re only a couple weeks old and just want to get the word out so people know they now have a place to share their extra veggies or find local food. We think it’s a great idea and hope and expect it to grow and succeed. Over 600 people have registered for the site in just the past week, and there are over a couple dozen posts so far. A lot of people are telling us they can’t wait to come back and list their produce once the growing season really kicks in.  Right now, we’re encouraging people to post what they have and what they’re looking for.

How far do you think people will travel to swap or buy produce?

No idea, but we designed Veggie Trader in the hopes of bringing people together in their local communities. However, one person did ask how she might search the entire country for produce instead of simply by zip code.  We told her how she could do this, but noted traveling across the country is a long way to go for homegrown fruits and veggies!

Is the action thus far just in warm weather states?

We’ve seen people registering and posting listings all across the country. It’s hard to determine a pattern just yet though.  I can say a lot of people from Southern California and Arizona have visited the site.  Then again, we seem to be getting a lot of people registering in Ohio as well.

Did you consider starting in one location and expanding to different cities slowly?

At first we thought about starting up just in our home base of Portland, Oregon.  But then we realized Veggie Trader can be just as useful in Austin, Denver, Los Angeles, or anywhere in the country. There’s been a tremendous amount of interest from all over.

We have lots of changes we plan to make to Veggie Trader to make it better and easier to use.  If people have suggestions, we encourage them to contact us via the site and let us know how we can make it a better
resource.

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Would grocery shopping every other week reduce your food waste? Lifehacker thinks it might.

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When colleges and universities go on break, they often have to throw away large amounts of food. A student group at the University of Kansas called Daily Bread is rectifying that situation.

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It’s not easy to get estimates on the reduced water and energy use when schools go trayless (from not washing trays). This article posits that Worcester’s Holy Cross expects to save 900 gallons a day!

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East Bay homeowners who want to donate backyard fruits or vegetables can do so via Gifts From Our Gardens, a program that brings volunteers to individuals’ yards.

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Finally, maybe I should get a sock puppet to help spread the message? I have a real soft spot for England’s fictional French chef Gordon Le Rotter and his sous chef/sock puppet Pierre.

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Word out of England is that some pols want to ban “buy one, get one free” deals. The Liberal-Democrats’ rationale is that stores are luring people to buy more food than they need, causing unnecessary waste. Now THAT sounds like too much government for my taste.

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Here’s an update on Seattle’s curbside composting program that’s coming at the end of the month. Giddy up!

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The good news here is that there’s less waste at some supermarkets. Unfortunately that’s also the bad news, as it means supermarket donations have tailed off. The really bad news: food pantry demand is up (from 20 to 57 percent in the article).

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60 folks picked 5,000 pounds of oranges at “The Big Pick” tree gleaning event in Chatsworth, Calif. Almost as exciting: organizers provided donuts, coffee and, yes, fresh-squeezed orange juice.

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The Rubbish Diet on food waste, Bokashi and hens.

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Finally, the Tweet of the Week goes to @PortlyMan:

I wish someone would finally produce the “Snackin’” (the edible napkin! All that wasted food on paper and no way to eat it. What a shame!